Blog Post: The Right to Self-Determination of Indigenous People Under International Law

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples details the rights of indigenous people in international law, including the minimum standards, protection, and promotion of these rights. The Declaration covers individual and collective rights to education, health, language, and more, as well as protects the rights of indigenous peoples to pursue their own economic, social, and cultural development. The right to self-determination has also been recognized by the OAS American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and several American States have acknowledged these rights in their legislation and constitutions. However, according to a report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), despite the progress made in recognition, practicing this right to self-determination remains a challenge.

In recent years, indigenous peoples have exercised their right to self-determination in self-government and territory management, political-administrative entities, systems of justice and jurisdiction, protection and security mechanisms, protocols for consultation and consent, and responses and strategies to Covid-19. Yet, the main challenges they face in practicing autonomy are enforcement of their rights over land and natural resources—a challenge that surfaces with extraction of resources and land without prior consultation or consent—and limitations in recognition of their legal systems, including lack of respect for their decision-making processes and a lack of legitimacy in elections due to external influences. Furthermore, climate change has impacted their food supply and sovereignty, as well as put peoples’ lives at risk, destroyed land and nature, and increased greenhouse gas emissions.

Facing these challenges, the IACHR recommends intercultural dialogue and coordination between States and indigenous peoples in order to encourage the practice of the right to self-determination within the framework of indigenous procedures, institutions, and worldviews. Territorial rights must be ensured through regulatory, political, and institutional frameworks, and the IACHR asserts the standards for consultation and consent implied within the right to self-determination. It also recommends mechanisms for justice and reparations for human rights violations, as well as measures to promote the role of indigenous and tribal women in the exercise of their rights.

As long as indigenous and tribal peoples have defended their rights to ancestral lands and territories and determined their own cultures, worldviews, and development pursuits, the right to self-determination requires intercultural dialogue and respect between the indigenous peoples and the States. How can we promote mechanisms and standards that promote the right to self-determination? What role does the Human Rights Council play in the future of the relationship between indigenous peoples and the States, and in the reversal of a legacy of racism, discrimination, and colonialism?